From one Texas-native football player to another, Dez Bryant expressed mixed emotions to ESPN in regard to Johnny Manziel and his pending NCAA investigation.

On one hand, Bryant, a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, said he wants to see the Texas A&M quarterback play this season. However, he felt it would be hypocritical to not suspend Manziel, when he received a similar punishment, arguably for less.

In 2009, USA Today reported Bryant, then of Oklahoma State University, had been ruled ineligible for the final ten games of his college career for lying in an NCAA investigation. Bryant had visited with Deion Sanders for dinner, but when the NCAA asked the young receiver about it, he said he had not.

Bryant came clean publically and apologized for lying, but still expressed his frustration over the suspension. Overwhelmed by an NCAA investigation, Bryant thought they saw him as a rule breaker, so he denied visiting and having dinner with the former NFL star. His actions were not a rule violation, but lying about his actions were.

"The kid panicked, man," Sanders told the New York Times at the time. "He panicked. He thought it was a violation to come over to my house and it isn't. He said no, that he hadn't been over here, and I said, yeah, he had been over here. I don't lie, and he panicked."

Bryant told ESPN Dallas Wednesday that he would find it hypocritical of the NCAA to suspend him on a technicality and not to suspend Manziel on an actual violation.

"Hell, yeah, I'll be mad. I'll be mad," said Bryant. "But I don't want him to get suspended. I would be mad more at the NCAA for how they do things."

Clearly conflicted, he expressed his frustration was more aimed at the NCAA for what he believes to be unfair treatment of its student-athletes.

"I just feel like it's not fair," Bryant said. "This is something I have no problem talking about because I feel like somebody needs to say something to them and let it be known how they treat people is not right."

Bryant was a Heisman Trophy candidate when he was suspended, and said the suspension hurts him to this day.

"All I did was lie about going over to somebody's house and I got my season taken away from me," Bryant said. "Still to this day, I think about it. It bothers me. I can't get it back. No matter how much money I make in this league... that really meant something to me."

The NCAA is currently entangled in a legal battle with former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon and possibly more current and former college athletes. O'Bannon's suit claims the NCAA, EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Company profited from his likeness, name and image and did not compensate him for it.

In the midst of the legal action against them, the NCAA has cut ties with EA Sports for video game licensing deals and has shut down their online store, which used to sell player and team merchandise.

During the SEC media days, University of South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier outlined a business plan to give players of NCAA Division I football and basketball an allowance, or spending money, to either bring their families to games or to use in their social lives. Some of Bryant's comments were inline with Spurrier's proposal.

"Those fans are coming to watch them and support them. Whenever you're in college, it's different. I think it would be OK to have a little money in your pocket. It's hard in college," Bryant said. "You've got to get a job if you can. You've got to practice. It's just hard. Sometimes the training table is not good enough."